She left Memel and arrived on the evening of July 4 at Piktuppönen. Here she received her instructions from Minister Hardenberg as to what she was principally to dwell upon in the interview. On July 5 she received a visit from the Czar, and on the sixth Napoleon sent her greeting through General Caulaincourt, and an invitation to dinner. With a French guard of honor she drove in a state carriage with eight horses to Tilsit,—and stopped at the house where her husband lodged. An hour after her arrival Napoleon, mounted on a white Arabian horse and accompanied by a large escort, rode to her door. The King and the princes received him at the staircase. Napoleon, holding his riding-whip in his hand, took off his hat, bowed quickly right and left, and ascended the steps to the Queen’s room, into which the King led him and then left him alone with her. After the first painful moments, the Queen expressed her concern that he had been obliged to climb such a wretched stairway to visit her. Napoleon answered gallantly: “On the road to such a goal, one should fear no obstacles.” She inquired how the northern climate agreed with him. And then she turned the conversation to the negotiations and told him that she had come to try to persuade him to make reasonable terms of peace. And when he loftily inquired: “But how could you go to war with me?” she answered, “Sire, if we deceived ourselves, it was but a natural consequence of the fame of the great Frederick.” This reply was overheard by the celebrated Talleyrand, Napoleon’s clever minister. He is said to have warned Napoleon of the impression the Queen might make upon him, in these words: “Sire! shall posterity be able to say that a beautiful queen has caused you to forego the full results of your greatest victory?” But Napoleon scarcely needed any such warning from Satan, he was Satanic enough himself. After the Queen’s remark he led the conversation to indifferent subjects, asked about the material of her dress, etc. But Louise would not be turned from her purpose. With warmth and even with tears in her eyes she pleaded with him not to impose upon the country this unreasonable burden of a half billion francs for war indemnity and the numerous garrisons, and especially to promise her that Danzig and Magdeburg should remain Prussian. “I will think it over,” he answered, holding out a prospect of an acceptable peace. The conversation lasted a quarter of an hour.